Accolades For Piyush Goyal and EESL: Distribution of LED Bulbs under UJALA crosses 20 crore

On Jan 19, 2017By:Anupama Airy

Today India is a world leader in LED consumption and we're selling 600,000 LED bulbs a day, union minister of state for power, coal, RE and mines Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday at the Raisina Dialogue 2017 in New Delhi.

Scaling another benchmark, India is presently selling six lakh LED bulbs every day and has crossed yet another benchmark of distributing over 20 crore LED bulbs under its flagship UJALA scheme. This assumes significance given the savings of Rs 10,000 crore that will accrue annually in electricity bills of the consumers.

“Today India is a world leader in LED consumption and we’re selling 600,000 LED bulbs a day,” union minister of state for power, coal, RE and mines Piyush Goyal said earlier on Wednesday at the Raisina Dialogue 2017 in New Delhi.

However, in the past two years, the government under UJALA scheme (spearheaded by semi-government owned, Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) has not only brought down the price of these energy efficient bulbs by almost three times but has also through various means emerged successful in convincing consumers to shift to these energy efficient bulbs.

Power ministry officials said that by 2020, all incandescent bulbs will be replaced by the energy efficient LED bulbs that consume much less power. Firstly it was the price and secondly the lack of appropriate knowledge that had prevented consumers to switch over to LED bulbs.

India’s success story on the LED front has been successfully followed by other developing nations including the US and EESL is partnering with many nations and organisations across the world sharing how succeeded in saving millions every year in the electricity bills of consumers through efficient use of energy.

Cost of LED bulbs being distributed under the government’s UJALA scheme being run by EESL have crashed to Rs38 for a 9 watt lamp, which is one-tenth of its price two years ago.

Presently, “With 20 crore LEDs distributed across the country, the UJALA scheme is now saving over R10k Cr consumer bills every year,” tweeted EESL on Wednesday.

Under the UJALA scheme, the government plans to replace 77 crore conventional bulbs and CFLs as well as 3.5 crore street lights with LEDs over three years to save 85 lakh kWh electricity consumption every day or 15,000 tonnes of CO2 by. The energy conservation programme of the Government is in line with India’s stand on lower greenhouse emissions ahead of the Paris convention.

Independent Journalist and Energy Expert.​ (Worked with leading mainline financial and national daily for 23 years.​)​ Also, Guest Contributor with busines​sinsider.in Currently, Writing a Book for Penguin India Titled Greased Pole:How Politics and Lobbying Stifled India's Energy Dreams. The author can be reached on anupama.airy@gmail.com (9810661825)​